Posts by Troy Frink

For some odd reason, Adam Sandler movies make big box office dollars even though critics usually hate them. Fans consume the unfunny garbage fires he puts his name on like it’s their job to make Sandler rich. But, aside from almost universal disdain, is there something tying Sandler’s movie together? One diehard fan, comedian Shawn...

Have you ever met someone with no record of existence? I’m not talking about doing your best Facebook detective work and coming up with nothing. I mean these people have absolutely no past. And, no, I don’t mean people in witness protection a la the end of Goodfellas. They have backstories. These people are even more mysterious than...

One quick look at the United States Geological Survey’s (USGS) earthquakes map is all it takes to realize that the U.S. is a literal hotbed of seismic activity. And, as a native Californian, I’ve been through countless earthquakes and tremors. (The tectonic activity may be an explanation of why all of our NFL teams except...

Since my editor hates me and loves to assign me stories that make me feel silly about experiencing real emotion about cats, I get to write this article. A disfigured cat wandered the streets of Istanbul – not Constantinople – starved for both food and attention, and was “too ugly” to look at, according to adults....

Anyone who’s ever rented a closet in Manhattan and called it an apartment, or stayed in a capsule hotel in Tokyo will tell you that a lot of people can fit into some pretty small spaces. In fact, the whole world is divided into densely populated areas and much larger, not-so-populated areas; this holds true even within highly populous countries. For...

Warning: This story will give you all the feels. All of them. But here goes. An entire year has gone by since this cat’s owner passed away, but the adorable kitty hasn’t left the grave since. Keli Keningau Prayitno of Central Java, Indonesia, heard the cries of mourning and tried to bring the cat home...

A bizarre star 1,200 light-years from Earth looks like it’s shooting enormous plasma balls twice the size of Mars into space, according to scientists. Star specialists at NASA used the Hubble Space Telescope, andRaghvendra Sahai of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, research led the research.The Astrophysical Journal published the results. (No word on if...

Only one person in recorded history has ever been confirmed to have been hit by a meteorite. One. That means you’d have a better chance of winning the lottery and being struck by lightning at the same time than you would having a space rock cause you bodily harm. Her name was Ann Hodges, and...

Some stories are so far outside the box that a healthy dose of “Yeah, right,” is perfectly in order. Sometimes, however, true events inspire great legends. Our ancestors made up stories to explain what they did not understand, and those stories have lasted through millennia. Atlantis Let’s start with one of the most famous myths...

Everyone knows fossils can be preserved bones or footprints. Sometimes, though, they come in the form of a bug within a lizard within a snake, all perfectly petrified in a volcanic lake. About 48 million years ago, an ancient iguana was chillin’, maxin’, relaxin’ all cool one day in prehistoric Germany. It had just managed to find a colorful...

Here’s a little personal information: I’m an effing nerd…like most writers here at Did You Know. When I got this assignment, I may or may not have giggled with excitement like a school girl. I’ve been dreaming of “the future” since I was a second grader in 1992, when my teacher told our class, “By...

Pennywise the clown can be credited for millions of childhood nightmares, and with good reason: It is absolutely terrifying, and clowns are really creepy. And if Pennywise wasn’t scary enough as a clown, he can change into any fear. I, for one, would literally lose my ability to function if I saw a clown scorpion. (Just try to get...

Several thousand people have been e-flocking (I just made that word up) to this livestream of Jackson Hole, Wyoming’s town square, and nobody really knows why. Wyoming is the least populated of the United States according to 2013 census data, and you could easily make the argument that Wyoming is pretty boring unless you like skiing,...